There's a SOPA protest / blackout tomorrow. I don't think Blogspot is planning anything, but don't be surprised if something weird happens to this blog since IMGUR is going down (and some of the media here is hosted by IMGUR.)

Take Two Interactive

The Max Payne 3 release date has been announced by Take Two. XBOX/PS3 on May 15 and May 18, PC version on May 29 and June 1. I won't be buying the game myself, so I don't really care.. but what I do care about is finding out what Rockstar Toronto's next game will be. With MP3 out of the way, we might finally learn more about what's been going on at Rockstar Toronto, and I'm hoping that they haven't given up on RDR PC.

Take Two's Quarterly (ending Dec 31, 2011) Shareholder's meeting will be held on February 2, 2012. That's why you have been seeing a large quantity of news announcements and game releases recently. There should be a couple more announcements before the call too (stuff I probably don't care about). I'm not really expecting much on the call, but there should be some talk about GTA V and expectations for the year (which we already know what's coming out for the most part.)

UPDATE (01/19/12): "There should be a couple more announcements before the call too (stuff I probably don't care about)."

BioShock will have a "1999 Mode" which is basically a harder difficulty level and it will include new "tweaks and features" (ie, a nostalgic UI.)

This is what they're announcing to impress their shareholders with? This doesn't exactly fill me with much confidence. I'm getting the feeling that the Take Two meeting isn't going to go very well.. so, don't be surprised if GTA V gets pushed back.

Activision Blizzard

Speaking of Quarterly Meetings, Activision Blizzard's meeting has not been announced yet but it should be very soon. They always announce 3 weeks (or less) prior to the meeting, and the meeting will be taking place likely on February 8 or 9. If a Diablo 3 release date announcement is made, it will be announced BEFORE this meeting. And traditionally, release date announcements are made on a Monday.

During this call, they will also be detailing their forecast for the year. During a previous investor call (May 9 2011), Thomas Tippl said "Our outlook at this time does not include a new game from Blizzard in 2011. Should Blizzard not release a major title this year, we would expect, for planning purposes, to launch a minimum of 2 Blizzard titles in 2012." I'm expecting the minimum, and not confident that Blizzard will be launching 3 titles this year. It should be HOTS launched with Diablo 3 in 2012, but you never know. Whether it's HOTS or MOP, expect it's release date sometime in early 2013.

TERA Online's release date has just been announced today too. It's arriving May 1, 2012. TERA has the type of fluid fast-paced hack-and-slash type action that I am expecting in Titan actually. Unfortunately, the game is subscription based so I probably won't be playing it. If the game was developed by Turbine, I'd say that this game was definitely another free-to-play candidate, but this is En Masse/Bluehole and due to their fledgling status, I'm expecting them to be rather stubborn (to the end) in their business decisions. So, I'm not hopeful of a full F2P version for quite a while.

Alcatraz just aired. I haven't watched it yet, but I'll probably be making a post about it after I do. I am fully expecting it not to do well though.

I've been thinking about a post on overcoming content consumption through a new skills-based RPG leveling system (and how it's more important than items), rather than the standard RPG games that we have now. New information is fairly scarce at the moment (a few dozen Blizzard Facebook and Twitter accounts were locked down or deleted after some of my last posts), so I might bore you with anecdotes or find some other ways to stall for time just like Blizzard has been doing. :)

UPDATE: Layoffs Still Being Confirmed

I don't know if you've still been following this or not, but there are still names from my original suspect list being terminated. Matt Milizia is the latest, who has finally confirmed that he is indeed no longer employed by Blizzard (probably given notice 4-5 weeks ago, depending on how long he was employed). Matt, as you might recall, was on that list with Paul Richards (who was also confirmed on his Blogspot account that he was terminated.) There's still two other names I suspect, but I'm still waiting for them to update another source to confirm if they are employed or not (unfortunately they abandoned their accounts, so it's difficult to say.)

This was a conspiracy theory, remember? Blizzard couldn't possibly have laid off more than 1 person (John Staats) and there's no way a Facebook Profile update could ever mean a change in employment. :)

Over a dozen names have been confirmed so far, but this is considered meaningless and completely unreliable:

UPDATE (01/19/12): Activision Blizzard Investor Call Announced

Ahh.. there it is. Activision Blizzard will be releasing their Q4 2011 results on February 9, 2012.

If we don't get a release date announcement on or by Monday, February 6 or we get the sense that there won't be an announcement that day, I think the game might be pushed back quite a bit more. :(